A Hawaiian Airlines passenger was left baffled when he was removed from a flight after boarding, with staff accusing him of having an “invalid” ticket.
Ryan DeMarre, from Idaho, posted the whole encounter to the video social media platform TikTok.
He claims he had arrived at the airport in Seattle for a Hawaiian Airlines flight to Maui, Hawaii on 2 July, and was able to check-in and go through airport security with no problems before the issue arose.
Once onboard, Mr Demarre’s video shows cabin crew coming to talk to him and his daughter in his plane seat.
He asks: “Is there some problem with my ticket?”
The crew member responds, “Yeah. Was it paid for by a third party?”
He is then told to retrieve his belongings and follow a ground staff member off the aircraft. They say, “Can you just come up here and talk to the boss?
“Well, here we are. It’s 10 o’clock; we’re at the ticket counter. They pulled us off the plane,” he says to his phone camera, with his teenage daughter visible in the background.
Waiting at the airline desk, he asks staff, “Are we making this flight?”
Staff say: “No, your ticket is invalid. It’s not even valid. She’s trying to fix it, but this flight, you won’t be able to make it on this flight.
“The bag will still be in Maui when you get there,” she adds.
“Kicked off with ‘invalid’ ticket. How do we get through TSA and on a plane with an invalid ticket and a minor?” Mr DeMarre captioned the video.
The passenger is shown remaining calm and polite throughout the confrontation with staff.
“Wait a second!?!? You just got off the plane? Didn’t jump up and down and start screaming? I’m impressed,” wrote one follower, to which he responded, “Thank you. My blood was moving though.”
Others pointed out the poor security practice of the airline leaving Mr DeMarre’s bag on the flight he was not travelling on.
“So they remove you from the plane for an invalid ticket for security reasons but left your luggage on the plane to Maui! Wow! That’s scary!” wrote a second follower.
“To let the checked bag stay on the plane is a huge security issue,” agreed another.
A Hawaiian Airlines spokesperson said: “Our gate agents were notified of a disputed credit card charge involving a guest on a July 2 flight from Seattle to Maui, which was overlooked during the check-in process.
“We requested that the guest deplane while we investigated the issue. We understand the inconvenience this caused Mr DeMarre and his family and sincerely apologize for the error. We have worked directly with Mr DeMarre to resolve the issue.”
